UNC physicians receive grant to train specialists in geriatric care

Tue, Jan 4, 2011 — This grant will expand geriatrics training to five medical specialties and subspecialties training faculty, residents and fellows through the Alliance for Geriatric Education in Specialties (AGES).

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CHAPEL HILL, NC — The UNC Center for Aging and Health/Division of Geriatric Medicine has received a second four-year $1.5 million grant from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation to develop a program entitled “Next Steps in Physicians’ Training in Geriatrics.” This grant will expand geriatrics training to five medical specialties and subspecialties training faculty, residents and fellows through the Alliance for Geriatric Education in Specialties (AGES).

The UNC Center received its first Reynolds grant in 2003 to train students, residents, and community physicians in geriatric care.

“As our population ages, 40-50 percent of specialists’ patients will be older,” explains Jan Busby-Whitehead, MD, professor of medicine, director of the UNC Center for Aging and Health and principal investigator. “These patients have complex needs due to the number of chronic conditions they have and the number of medicines they take.

“This grant will allow us to train specialists in emergency medicine, physical medicine and rehabilitation, hematology and oncology, trauma and critical care surgery, and the hospital medicine service in critical issues of geriatric care and geriatric syndromes such as dementia, physiology of aging, and geriatric assessments. They, in turn, will provide training to their peers, residents and fellows.“

UNC is one of 10 institutions nationwide to receive a grant.

“Just as the pediatrics specialty addresses the issues specific to children, so does the geriatrics specialty address the special issues facing older patients,” Busby-Whitehead said.

The Donald W. Reynolds Foundation is a national philanthropic organization founded in 1954 by the late media entrepreneur for whom it is named. Headquartered in Las Vegas, it is one of the 50 largest private foundations in the United States.

The Aging and Quality of Life program was conceived by the Foundation in response to a growing consensus that physicians lack adequate training to meet the increasing needs of the frail elderly patient. Such patients typically suffer from multiple, interactive physical and psychosocial conditions – both acute and chronic – that compromise their capacity to function in daily life and lessen their independence.